A Kitten for a Thanks
by three notes
Summary: Chikusa bought the groceries, but was Ken ever thankful? The only escape was the kitten box. Don't get it? Read.


So random this is. Seriously. But i think it's cute. sorry if its OCC or whatever its called.  
ENJOY

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The humidity could very barely be breathed by anyone outside the streets of Namimori. Typhoon season was somewhat bearable this year. Storms weren't so bad outside, and the rain didn't pound to the ground so much. This made it okay for Namimori's habitants to do their business out of their homes. This was especially good for one of Kokuyo's residents, Kakimoto Chikusa.

He was currently the one in charge of-or rather, had appointed himself for buying the groceries for Chrome, Ken, and himself.

It used to be that either Chrome alone or Ken and Chikusa would do the buying; but with Chrome being involved with the Vongola kids and it being too dangerous-especially with this weather-for her to go out to buy measly groceries, the two boys just wouldn't take the chance. That, and when shopping for groceries with Ken-someone who buys what he wants and not what he needs-Chikusa would be wasting an extra hour or two-at one time four-at the store and not in the shower. Dear reader, Chikusa is not the type of person to waste time with. Seriously, he has real business to be attending to; like taking a shower-the boy loves his showers, he can not**-CAN NOT-**stand the thought of being dirtied with dirt, matted in sweat, drenched in water, or bloodied in blood. He needs to be clean. And no, he is not a germ-a-phobe; he just likes being clean is all.

As of now, Chikusa was walking by a lonely block. Very lonely this block was; it was actually going to be broken down and rebuilt into a large parking lot. The block also bordered the street that lead straight to Kokuyo Land.

Chikusa, plastic bags grasped by both hands, passed by an alley and paused when he heard a mewl. Turning his head to the dumpster next to him, he looked down and saw a box. Inside the box, kittens, shades of white to black, were crowded together; their tiny heads clunking with another and paws stepping on top of another. He stared at the kitten box for an extra five seconds and, after feeling the light drizzle of mist seeping through his jacket, continued walking back home.

_TTT

_Stupid Ken and his tricks. I told him the cupboards were breaking, and what did he do? He crashed into the whole thing and dumped all the food in the water. What an idiot..._

Chikusa was mumbling to himself of the past day. Ken had gotten incredibly annoyed when he found out that 'Kakipi' (Chikusa's nickname for Ken) had not bought him gum. Yes, gum. Ken went in a rampage in the kitchen room and ended up crashing into the cupboard that held most of the food. All the food spilled out, and with their home being out of order, an inch of water had seeped into their home from all the rain, you can guess what happened to the food. All for a pack of gum.

Chikusa sighed at the thought of Ken being calm and quiet, like himself. Ken, calm and quiet. Calm and quiet. Calm. Quiet.

He immediately cast that image away. _There's no way in hell that I would be able to handle another me, _he thought.

Chikusa had reached the lonely block. He stopped next to the kitten box and looked at them. They were squirming around, mewling when they knocked into each other. After five seconds, he continued walking.

This happened for another two weeks. Chikusa would go get the groceries, look at the kitten box, then head back home. It was all going well 'till **THAT DAY**.

Chikusa had come back from another day's shopping and carried on to take his daily shower; leaving Chrome and Ken to unpack. While going through the groceries, Ken had noticed that Chikusa didn't buy anything he liked. Including his precious strawberry flavored gum. He was about to go on another rampage, when Chikusa stepped into the room.

"Kakipi? What the hell? Why'd you buy food for you and the stupid girl only? I get hungry too, ya know!" Ken started shouting.

"Ken," Chikusa muttered, in a dark tone.

"We shouldn't let you buy the food anymore!"

"Ken..."

"Do you even care if I starve?"

Chrome was aware of a strange, looming aura emanating from the lanky youth. She could see that his eyes were shadowed and took steps back, away from the shouting blond.

Just as Ken got into shouting about starving, he was cut short when his cheek was struck by something hard. He yelped and clasped a hand over his cheek, wincing at the sharp ache. A sinister shadow loomed over him, he blanched when his eyes met Chikusa's.

In a threatening but steady tone he said, "For one, why don't you go get a job and buy your own shitty gum? You should know that Chrome can't be wandering around right now and that I don't have time to waste with you or your stupid gum. And maybe you haven't noticed, but you have a shit full of gum and snacks dumped in your room; so don't come yelling at me about fucking starving."

Ken was speechless and paralyzed in fear even after Chikusa left. Chrome couldn't help but wonder if there was someone else with that frightening aura.

_TTT

For the next couple of days-that painstakingly slowly turned into weeks-Chikusa would come home late after shopping for more groceries. The rain had let up so Chikusa took his time walking back. Plus, there was no point in hurrying since the shower had started spewing out muddied water. Boy did that piss him off. That, and the fact that Ken had so selfishly yelled at him about not buying him his food. Food that he clearly had a closet stored with inside. He had no idea why the hell Ken would do that; maybe it had to do with the animal experimentations he had back then which luckily he had to 'channel' into them and not turn into them willingly. Of course, that's only a 'maybe'. Maybe it also had to do with Ken being a total ass. That, Chikusa agreed with.

He again stopped by the kitten box. This had become like a haven to him. The soft mewls quieted down his seething thoughts and calmed him down a bit. The low drizzle of rain brought him back though.

_TTT

"I just can't believe that Kakipi had a job and wasted his time buying us food," Ken sniffed.

Chrome patted him on the back. "He has to get the money from somewhere."

"Yeah, but I thought he was stealing it or something."

Chrome paused and imagined Chikusa stealing off money from Nana or Bianchi. She shook her head; Chikusa didn't look like a thief-well, not anymore at least.

Ken and Chrome were inside the 'living room', waiting for Chikusa. He had been coming home late so this gave Ken time to relieve his feelings; and sadly-to his dismay-Chrome was the only other human he knew.

"It's scary when Kakipi's like this," he held his head in his hands and swayed back and forth.

"You mean he's like this sometimes?" Chrome was amazed that Chikusa was able to let out such an aura.

Ken looked at her. "Well, not sometimes. It's rare actually," he shivered.

Chrome waited for more.

Ken looked away from her now. "He's always calm in any situation, but he does get mad. You can't see it, but you can definitely feel it."

Chrome nodded. She felt it all right. She felt it.

Mukuro felt it too.

He was listening to the two speak from within his host and remembered back in the day when it was just the three of them. Ken, Chikusa, and himself. They roamed the streets for a while after the Estraneo 'incident'. During that time, Ken had done something that pissed Chikusa off. He remembered that the tall boy would ignore Ken completely; and when Mukuro had given him a small instruction, he would still reply with a 'yes, Mukuro-sama', but after he had gone off, a cold shiver would run down his spine. Maybe that had to do with him being a young boy, but still. Even now, just thinking of those malicious eyes, sent shivers down his spine-which was strange considering that he was trapped in a water filled tube with a wrap and shackles binding him right now.

Chrome and Ken's head snapped up when they heard footsteps entering the entrance of the next room-the kitchen. They stood up and went over to the room and warily stepped in. Chikusa set the bags down and proceeded to put away the contents. Ken slowly went towards him.

"H-hey, Kakipi," he-tried-to greet, with a **tiny **smile. His**-tiny-**smile wavered and he shrank back when Chikusa looked at him. His face was the same as always, gloomy; but his eyes! His eyes were **not **gloomy or bored. They were filled with this horrible, glare of maliciousness; and it intensified when he did glare.

Ken let out an 'eep' and backed away. Chrome sighed and took his place instead. She helped the glaring boy put away the food.

_TTT

The next days were torture for Ken. Every day he would try to greet Chikusa, hoping that his 'Mad Days' was over; but gee by golly they weren't.

Finally, Chrome decided to take action.

_TTT

Chikusa was-for the millionth time-walking back home. As a day-to-day habit, he stopped by the kitten box, but was surprised to see it gone. _Guess they're gone for good. Took them a while..._

Once at home, he began putting away the groceries. The building was dead silent for some reason. _Where'd they go? _He looked around through some rooms, but found no one.

He sighed and went into his room. He'd gotten home early today so the sun was barely setting. He walked toward the broken couch and sat down. _Mind as well enjoy the silence. _

He closed his eyes and in the next second, he was nudged awake by Ken.

"Hiya, Kakipi," Ken greeted. He was smiling with confidence this time.

"Ken?" he rubbed his eyes and put on his glasses. Chrome was behind Ken, clutching a small bundle in her hands.

"What's that?" he asked, beginning to stand up but stopped when Ken pushed him back down. His eyes narrowed a bit; Ken trembled slightly, but continued.

"Kakipi, I've got awesome news, pyon!" Ken cheered.

Chikusa stayed silent, waiting.

Ken went on explaining. "I got a small job at some store, so you don't have to worry about buying me anything. And I fixed the cupboard downstairs. And I also put away my stored snacks in them too!"

Chikusa agreed on that. While putting away the food he noticed the cupboard was 'fixed'. 'Fixed', because it was taped together and nailed in wrong places. He did see the snacks though.

"But the awesome news is that I fixed the shower, pyon!"

"...You did?" Chikusa eyed him carefully, not believing him.

"Yeah! C'mon I'll show you," Ken dragged Chikusa to the shower and proved it all right. The liquid that came out was definitely cool, fresh, and clean water.

Ken laughed and left the room to let Chikusa use it.

A few long minutes later, Chikusa emerged out of the shower with fresh, clean clothes; he was now squeaky clean. Ken told him to take a seat on the couch.

"'K, Kakipi. I don't know how to do this right, but here goes." He took a deep breath and with as much feeling he could put into, said, "Thank you."

Chikusa stayed still. He covered his mouth and coughed.

Ken scowled. "Oi, Kakipi, it's not funny. I mean it. You've been hauling your ass around for us. So..." he turned around and nodded to Chrome. She went to Chikusa and smiled while handing him the bundle. Chikusa looked at the bundle and saw a shade of gray, blonde, and black. It moved around and mewled at the sight of him.

It was one the kittens from the kitten box.

"I saw them in a small box while coming home. I fed them sometimes, but decided to give them to the shelter and some of Bossu's friends. This one looked like it would like you so..." Chrome blushed, realizing that she was blabbering.

"Look, it likes Kakipi already, pyon!" Ken laughed. Chrome said something that Ken didn't like-he turned a bright red. He started scolding her. Chikusa ignored them. He looked at the kitten and was awestruck by its appearance. Its head and body was blonde and gray, the paws and right eye was black, and its tail was gray and black. _What a weird kitten_, he mused.

"Strano," he muttered.

"Eh? Did you say something, Kakipi?" Ken directed his attention to him now.

"Strano," he said again.

"..." Ken stayed quiet, he hadn't heard him speak Italian for a while.

Chrome smiled slightly, knowing its meaning.

Chikusa looked at the two. "Its name. It's Strano. Like us."

Ken laughed at the statement. Chrome just smiled. Chikusa, well Chikusa had already forgiven Ken; and he was definitely going to take care of Strano. A miniscule smile found its way to his lips when it mewled and looked at him. _Benvenuto nella nostra strana famiglia._

_

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'Welcome to our strange family'

dunno. had to put some italian. i just realized that 'extrano' in spanish sounds like 'strange' in english-to me at least. but theyre not the same. hm. hope you enjoyed. 


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